People from around the country traveled to the City of Jackson, Mississippi, over the past two weeks for multiple events celebrating the life and legacy of civil and voting rights activist Medgar Wiley Evers. July 2 would have been the 100th birthday of the man who died after a white supremacist assassinated him when he was only 37.
Both those who knew Evers intimately and those who study and admire his work gathered to talk about the icon who dedicated his life to advocating for a more just America than the one he grew up in. The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute and the Mississippi Votes Action Fund celebrated Evers with a four-day series of events from June 26 to 29. The Two Mississippi Museums offered free admission, guided tours and hosted panel discussions with the Mississippi NAACP about carrying Evers’ legacy forward on July 2.
The celebratory events come at a time when Evers’ legacy is under threat as President Donald Trump’s Administration targets the historical achievements of Black people, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people as they roll back “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, policies and legal infrastructure.
On the evening of June 26, 2025, minutes before she would sit for a conversation about her father’s life and how his assassination impacted her family, Reena Evers-Everette urged a group gathered inside the Jackson Convention Complex to study and illuminate the history that some people are working feverishly to redact.
“We cannot forget our history. No one can erase our history,” she said.
Here are some photos from the weeklong commemorations.
Dahmer, Evers, Kennedy Discuss Their Fathers
“People have asked me, ‘Have you forgiven?’ I’m still working on it,” Evers-Everette told a crowd gathered inside the Jackson Convention Complex on June 26.
Two Mississippi Museums’ Medgar Evers Day
“For (our) students, who’ve never experienced this, it has been a moving day,” Medgar Evers College Mass Communications professor Dr. Glenn McMillan said to a group gathered inside the Two Mississippi Museums for Medgar Evers Day on July 2.
Medgar Evers College is a senior college of the City University of New York, established seven years after his murder in 1970.
“He knew he was subject to lose his life, but if he lost his life helping his people, he felt it was all worth it,” Forrest County NAACP President Clarence E. Magee said about Medgar Evers.
“We can’t plan for 100 years ahead if there is no representative democracy as we saw it before,” Mississippi NAACP Health Committee chair Dr. Sandra C. Melvin said. “What keeps me up at night is the next three and a half years. We need to be thinking about how far we’re going to let (the federal government) go over the next three and a half years and what we’re going to do about it. We need to be the resistance.”
Medgar Evers was a pioneer in recruiting young people to get involved in advocacy with the NAACP, Dr. Ivory Phillips said on July 2. “He saw them as true soldiers who could make a difference,” he said.
“To change what has been systemically in place—in this country and in Mississippi—since the 1800s, it’s going to be a long struggle,” Frank Figgers said. “Roll your sleeves up.”